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City supports 2 a.m. closing for South End pizza place, opposes it for Dorchester restaurant

South End Pizza and Grill, 768 Tremont St. in the South End, received warm support from city officials for its proposal to extend its closing time from midnight to 2 a.m., seven days a week, at a Boston Licensing Board hearing today.

The pizzeria says it wants to extend its hours to serve the growing number of students in the area. The Chester Square Neighborhood Association, the mayor's office and city councilors Tito Jackson,, Michelle Wu and Ayanna Pressley all supported the proposal.

In Dorchester, Levi's Restaurant and Lounge, 323 Washington St., received mixed reaction on its proposal to extend its closing time on Fridays and Saturdays from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. Although the Four Corners Action Coalition supported the request, the mayor's office and BPD District C-11 opposed it.

The Georges, who own the restaurant, said they keep getting requests from customers to stay open a little later on weekends.

Mayor's liaison Tim McKay said the restaurant had failed to meet with all the neighborhood groups the mayor's office thinks it should and that C-11 "has had some issues in the past" with the restaurant.

However, after the owners said the restaurant sits in the Four Corners area and they have no idea what those other groups are, McKay said he could not specify the groups - he said he was filling in for the normal Dorchester representative.

Nobody from C-11 attended the session and McKay could also not specify what the police's problems with Levi's were.

Board member Suzanne Ianella peered through the restaurant's licensing-board file and said it has been cited by police just once since its 2010 opening - for being open 20 minutes after its stated closing time.

Board member Milton Wright expressed frustration that the mayor's office wants the board to reject the request with absolutely no details of what the police concerns are.

No city councilors had anything to say either way about the Levi's request.

Maybe the Georges should find some students to talk to the Board - since that seems to be the stated justification for keeping the place in the South End open until 2 EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK. This kind of smells. I hope you update us on how the vote goes.

The mayors office need to get their job done there never in the community the only time u will hear from them is when it is to support a white owned business but oppose a black owned business so sad that we are still at this point in life. You don't really know what these business owners are going through and the mayors office with all the fudgin rules jus make me nauseous

I don't know them that well, barely really, but I don't recall them being African American. Looking at photos of Doug on Annissa's campaign page, he looks pretty white, but then again, who can tell?

EDIT- I think I have the wrong Georges. What can I say? When I read "the Georges" I think of the St. Margaret's Georges. So, all I can do is agree with Costello, and suggest that these Georges work with Main Streets to make their proposal better.

You commented after my edit, so you saw that I admitted that I may have been mistaken, and noted why I may have been mistaken. As you point out, I was mistaken.

But no, I have not visited every single restaurant in Boston. Heck, after you read my profile ponder this- I've never eaten at Delfino's, which is the granddaddy of the Roslindale dinner circuit. However, I did vote for Doug George's wife, both in September and November. I guess you could offer to take the whole Waquiot clan out to eat at restaurants all over the city. Mrs. Waquiot's cooking is pretty good, but a free meal is a free meal.